


Santa is Coming to Aiba's House

by Retasudesu



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 17:01:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5505806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Retasudesu/pseuds/Retasudesu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aiba believed that Santa is real, and he's going to, somehow, prove it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Santa is Coming to Aiba's House

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday to our Sunshine, Aiba Masaki! <3   
> P.s: as usual, unbetaed

Young Aiba was afraid of the dark.

Whenever his mother has turned off the light in his room and leaving him with only a small lamp on in the nightstand, Aiba would most definitely not leaving until it was morning. He hated the darkness so bad; he still believed that something was lurking in the darkness, ready to pounce whenever he wasn’t aware of his surroundings, which was why Aiba’d say tucked under the blanket like how his mother usually left him.

But tonight, he had made up his mind.

Aiba stayed quietly on his bed, eyes opened widely thanks to a can of coffee he drank secretly before bedtime. He waited until he was sure that his parents has gone to bed, which was pretty damn late in the night, and when the house was as silent as a muted TV, Aiba slowly crawled out from under his blanket and he reached out blindly to the nightstand, rummaging through the drawer and then pulling out a flashlight from it. He breathed in relief as he found out that the flashlight was still usable, and after taking another deep breathe, he finally hopped on to the floor and slowly making his way out of his room.

The sight of the empty, dark hallway of his own house scared him to no end, but Aiba couldn’t back down now. He has to prove it – he has to prove to Nino that Santa was real, and that he came to Aiba’s place every Christmas because Aiba always made sure that he behaved from a month before Christmas. Besides, Santa always managed to bring whatever it was that he wanted; RC, baseball gloves, drawing book. When he said this to Nino though, Nino only snorted, his small shoulder shaking in laughter as he shook his head at Aiba like he was a disappointment. “Santa is not real. It’s your parents that have been getting what you wanted.”

“No, it’s Santa! And besides, why would my parents know what I wanted for Christmas?!”

“You must’ve told them beforehand.”

Aiba was about to object, but now that he thought about it, he always told his parents what he wanted for Christmas, like, “ _This year I’m going to ask Santa for a new RC_ ” or “ _I’m going to ask Santa for that shiny, new baseball gloves_ ”. Aiba paled when he realized that Nino could be right, and Nino, too, started smiling when Aiba couldn’t argue with him. “See.” The smaller boy said proudly. “It’s not real, Santa is not real.”

“They’re real!” Aiba insisted as he stomped his feet into the ground. “THEY. ARE. REAL.”

Nino crossed his arms on his chest. “Prove it.”

And here he was, walking with shaking legs down the scary, dark stairs with the flashlight on just for the sake to prove that Santa was real. He wasn’t sure on how to prove it to Nino, but there was a pocket camera in the cupboard in the living room, and maybe if Aiba bribed him, Santa would let him take a picture of him – he probably would, Aiba was a good boy after all. He prepared a plate full of cookies and a glass of milk as quiet as he could too, just in case. With hands full of cookies and milk and the flashlight on his armpit, Aiba moved quietly to the living room where he set the cookies and glass down, and then he turned towards the Christmas tree.

And what he saw disappointed him.

The Christmas tree’s light was off, but as he pointed the flashlight to the tree, he could see that some gifts were already placed under it.

And one of them was what Aiba had told his parents he wanted to have for this Christmas: a new metal bat.

Slowly, he walked closer to the Christmas tree and then he flopped down to the floor as he reached out to hold the bat. It was light, shiny, and Aiba loved it so bad, but at the same time, the disappointment bubbled up inside of him. He had told his parents that he wanted to ask Santa for this, but after talking with Nino, he had purposefully changed his wish to a new pair of sneakers with soles that’d light up whenever you walked with it.

So, having the metal bat on his hands like this only further proven that Nino was right, and Aiba was wrong.

Santa wasn’t real.

Aiba didn’t want to cry, but he did. He started sobbing quietly as he hugged the metal bat close to his chest. He hated being proven wrong, and he knew that the next day, he’d have to endure Nino’s mocking, but what he hated even more was the fact that Santa wasn’t even real – that all this time, he believed on the telltale his parents told him.

“I’m so stupid…” He mumbled sadly. “Stupid.”

Aiba placed the metal bat back to under the tree, and then he picked up the flashlight and decided to go back to his bed, but then he saw something shining through the window, and his heart leaped to his throat at the bright light coming from the window. He was scared, even more when a figure was opening his window from the outside (how was that possible was forever a mystery to him, since the window was locked from the _inside_ ). At first, he thought it was a robber, so he instinctively grabbed a hold of the metal bat, his legs shaking as he watched someone with a big, white bundle on his hands started climbing through the window. Aiba opened his mouth, ready to surprise the robber or maybe scream for his life, when the figure tripped and fell inside the room with a loud, “Ouch!” and his bundle fell from his hands into the floor, and some of the nicely wrapped gifts came out.

Aiba pointed his flashlight to the figure, and then he gaped.

Because that figure turned out to be a person in red clothes and a cute little hat on top of his fluffy, brown hair.

Santa.

“ _Santa?!”_ Aiba squealed happily, still with the flashlight pointed at the figure, who tried to cover his face from the light. “Is that you, Santa?!”

“Yeah, it’s me.” The Santa grumbled as he pulled himself back into his feet; Aiba watched him in awe, but then he started frowning because this Santa didn’t look like anything the book told him. There was no beard, no funny glasses on crooked nose; if anything, this Santa looked incredibly young, with brown, fluffy hair and a sleepy look on his face.

Aiba naturally doubted him. “ _Are you?_ ”

“I am, young boy.” The Santa sighed as he started gathering the gifts and putting them back into his white bundle. “Why do you doubt me?”

“Because you don’t have beard.”

“Oh, please.” The Santa rolled his eyes. “You can’t expect all of us to have beard; I’m still young, you know.”

“There is more than one Santa?!” Aiba asked in awe, and the Santa nodded with a small smile.

“Need more than one Santa to give every good kid on this earth their well-deserved gifts.” The Santa then pointed at the cookies on the table. “Is that for me?”

“Y-yes.” Aiba squeaked, and then he watched as the Santa sat on the floor and started munching on the cookies with an occasional soft-spoken “ _Delicious_ ”. Shyly, Aiba approached him and sit beside him with an amazed look on his face; the Santa smelled really nice, like a mixture of cookies dough and vanilla and everything sweet, and without being able to stop himself, Aiba reached out to tug on his clothes, once again amazed at how soft the fabric was unlike everything he has ever touched. “You’re real.” He whispered. “You’re a real Santa, aren’t you?”

The Santa stopped eating his cookies; he put the one in his hand back into the plate, and then he reached out to ruffle Aiba’s hair. “I am real.” He said with a warm smile. “I am real because good kids like you believed in me.”

Aiba’s eyes watered again; he sniffed, trying to hold his tears back as he stared up at the Santa. “I’m glad…” He said. “I thought Nino was right – he said that Santa didn’t exist, and I almost believed him.”

The Santa frowned; he pulled out a long list from his pocket, scanned through it, and then he pulled out a pen out of nowhere and scratched on it. “No new video games for Ninomiya Kazunari this year.” He mumbled, and then he folded the list and stuffed it back into his pocket. The Santa finished all the cookies and also the milk, and after letting out a small burp, he stood up and stretched. “Okay, now it’s present time!” The Santa said excitedly as he walked towards his bundle. “What do you want this year, Aiba-chan? A new pair of sneakers, right?”

“Ah, I don’t need it anymore.” Aiba said as he approached the Santa, secretly trying to peek inside the bundle to see how many gifts he had inside it – there was a lot. “I don’t need them anymore.”

The Santa looked at him in a mild surprise. “But why?”

“Because I got my present already!” Aiba smiled toothily at the Santa. “I get to see you for real, and that’s enough present for me!”

The Santa was stunned for a while, before he finally broke into a toothy grin like Aiba did. He approached Aiba and pulled him into a hug then, and Aiba immediately clung on him, breathing in the sweet scent of the Santa as the man patted him softly on the back. “Such a good boy.” The Santa said happily. “And for such a good boy, I have a very special gift.”

Aiba looked up at him curiously. “What is it?”

The Santa didn’t answer; instead, he placed his palm on top of Aiba’s messed up hair, and with a smile, he said, “You’ll grow up into a kind man. You’ll have a very pure soul, with a very bright smile that’d lead your way through life. You’ll be surrounded by people that love you unconditionally, and you’ll love them unconditionally back. Most importantly, you’ll grow up happy.” He then kissed Aiba’s temple gently. “I bless you with happiness.”

Aiba felt something warm flowing through him as the Santa said that; he didn’t know what, exactly, was happening, but he knew that it was something _magical_. So instead of asking question, Aiba only hugged the Santa tightly, cherishing on how warm he felt despite the opened window in the middle of winter. After a while, the Santa finally let him go, and he said, “I have to go; the good kids need their gifts.”

“Okay…” Aiba said sadly; he let go of the Santa, and he watched sadly as the Santa grabbed on his white bundle and started heading towards the window. “Will I ever meet you again?”

“I’m afraid not.” The Santa replied gently. “It’s not good for both of us; I’m already breaking the rules enough as it is.”

“Oh…” Aiba looked down dejectedly, and the Santa started climbing the window, when he immediately asked, “Can I have your name?”

The Santa turned around. “My name?”

“Don’t you have a name?” Aiba insisted. “Other than Santa, that is.”

“Oh, yeah.” The Santa grinned. “I’m Santa Ohno.” He stopped on the windows frame for a moment, and then he smiled widely to Aiba.

“ _Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday, Aiba-chan.”_

And then he hopped off the window, and everything started shining brightly again, but this time Aiba stared at the light stubbornly until it disappeared, and Santa Ohno was gone, but the memory stayed with Aiba for forever.

Especially when the next day, Nino came crying to him because he didn’t get the video games he wanted, and Aiba smiled widely as he said, “This is what happened when you don’t trust the Santa.”

Nino looked at him skeptically, and he still insisted that Santa wasn’t real, but even Aiba knew that Nino had his doubts now, and he’d probably start believing in him next year.

As for Aiba, he’d always believe in Santa.

Always.

***

“I told you, Santa is real!”

Nino rolled his eyes skeptically, much to Aiba’s dismay, and then he stared back at his DS. “This guy has been saying this ever since I know him.”

“It’s true!” Aiba insisted. “I even saw him once before –“

“That can’t be true.” Sho spoke up. “Are you sure that it’s not your parents dressing up as Santa?”

“It’s not!” Aiba stomped his feet. “I can recognize my own parents, geez!”

“Then how does he look like?” Jun asked, though he appeared really uninterested with the talk.

“The Santa is still young, probably around 20? I can’t really remember his face now, but…”

“There’s no way the Santa is still young, Santa is supposed to be old!”

“No, you silly! Not all Santa are old!”

“You’re the silly one here!”

“Oh-chan!” Aiba turned to his last backup. “Oh-chan, you believe in Santa, right?”

Ohno, who has been watching them silently with a small smile playing on his lips from the couch, smiled even wider when he was addressed. He nodded timidly under Aiba’s pleading stare, and then he said, “I believe in them.”

“See, Oh-chan believed in them!”

“You spoiled him too much, Oh-chan!” Nino grumbled, but it was clear that the arguments were over after what Ohno had said, and Aiba happily approached Ohno to snuggle against him. “Thanks for helping me out, Oh-chan.” He whispered to his ears.

Ohno giggled, and he whispered back, “You’re welcome.”

Ohno’s attention was back at the fishing magazine he had on his hands then, while Aiba couldn’t stop staring at him. He always thought this ever since he met Ohno, but he always looked familiar; Aiba felt like he had known him for a very long time ago, but he couldn’t really remember. “Oh-chan.” He spoke then. “Do I know you?”

In return, Ohno let out a short laugh. “Maybe.”

_Maybe_. Aiba could live with that.

He decided to let the matter slip then; he rested his head on Ohno’s lap, and he closed his eyes as Ohno’s sweet scent started invading his senses. He smelt like a mixture of cookies dough, vanilla, and everything sweet…

_Ah_.

Aiba listened to his friends bickering, to Ohno’s gentle chiding, and he couldn’t help but smiling.

He was blessed with happiness.


End file.
